Within different branches of industry there is a constantly growing need for automatic sampling at given interval of time, especially within process engineering. High reliability, great accuracy, minimal carry-over of sample residue from one sample to the next, and long life are among essential requirements in automatic sampling. Furthermore, it is necessary to be able to collect samples, not only in large, but especially in small and very small quantities of fluid with high accuracy of measurement and with reliable reproducibility.
Most commercially available automatic sampling devices are designed to operate based on a predetermined volume for collecting a fluid specimen. Many of these devices utilize a capillary channel to collect a predetermined volume of fluid specimen. The capillary channel of typical devices and systems, however, has difficulty collecting sample volumes which exceed a predetermined amount, and cannot handle variable volumes. Moreover, these drawbacks inherent in the conventional setup make it even more difficult to perform sampling at large scale with high viscosity. As such, the application of these devices is limited to a specific industry, such as medical laboratory where a small amount of fluid specimen with moderate viscosity is required for sampling. Furthermore, almost all errors in sampling process are associated with human or pre-analytical processing errors where preparation and adjusting sampling by hand permit upfront human error to occur at various sample collection sites and laboratories. As a result, the entire process can lead to increase in sampling time and labor intensity, and thus cost inefficiency.
With all these shortcomings, there remains a need to develop an improved fluid sampling device that provides an easier and more efficient means for collecting fluid specimen of all kinds and all measures without being limited to a specific and predetermined volume while maintaining satisfactory accuracy and safety as well as being timely and cost effective.
Accordingly, the present disclosure addresses providing an improved apparatus and method for sampling fluids without volume limitation, while offering a safe and reliable sampling process in a timely and cost-effective fashion.